Johnson & Johnson said it was negotiating partnership deals with two Chinese companies as it taps into a biotech boom in the country driven by a surge in private investment and government support, according to a senior executive.
The talks with the two companies, which J&J declined to name, follow the US drugmaker’s successful collaboration with Legend Biotech, a company founded in China in 2014 but now headquartered in New Jersey. The companies worked together on a breakthrough cell-based cancer therapy that was approved by US regulators last week.
Several other large US pharma groups, including Eli Lilly, AbbVie and Amgen have clinched similar agreements over the past two years as western drugmakers increasingly seek to license high-potential therapies from Chinese partners to sell in other markets.